3-021-762 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Wreck of the Duncan Dunbar, Australian passenger ship, on the coast of Brazil, 1865. After the ship was wrecked on the reef Las Roccas, '"it was impossible", said one of the passengers, "to describe the state of mind in which we passed the hours of that most awful and trying night. The vessel was rolling from side to side, and striking most violently at each roll, in a way which seemed to threaten her instant destruction, [but fortunately the captain led the passengers to safety]...on a landing-place on one of the two banks or islets of sand which rise about 7 ft. above ordinary high-water mark... "For the first two days we had only half a pint of water apiece, although toiling in a severe and unaccustomed manner under a broiling sun, the thermometer being at 112. A tent was set up, and we sheltered ourselves as well as we could. The place was much infested by land-crabs and various kinds of vermin, as well as by sea-birds. We obtained provisions...from the wreck... [Eventually] the Royal mail-ship Oneida...came to the island and took all hands [117 people]...safely to Southampton. The ladies behaved with wonderful bravery from first to last".' From "Illustrated London News", 1865.